


Archetype

by Azzandra



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic (technically), Spark Exchange 2018, Vague Post-Canon Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 06:43:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17157167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azzandra/pseuds/Azzandra
Summary: Krosp finds himself planning for the future. And that future is… kittens.





	Archetype

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gg-prompted-fics](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=gg-prompted-fics).



> Happy holidays to gg-prompted-fics!

"--and so I have decided that there is nobody else I would entrust with this task other than you, in light of your long years of faithful service," Krosp finished, timing the end of that sentence with a heel turn and a graceful half in the middle of the circuit he'd been doing from one end of the breakfast table to the other.

Agatha, who had an open book propped against the saltshaker and a piece of toast dripping jam onto her plate, looked up from her reading to see Krosp looking down at her expectantly.

"Bwhugh?" Agatha blurted with her mouth full, surprised by the abrupt end to Krosp's speech.

"Well, what do you say?" Krosp asked impatiently.

Agatha swallowed and raised an eyebrow.

"To what?" she asked. "You still haven't told me what you want me to do for you!"

Krosp's face was blank for a moment, before he stared off into the middle-distance, apparently reeling back the entire speech in his head and verifying that, indeed, he had omitted a few crucial details in between extolling Agatha's virtues of basic competence as a loyal vassal. He made a frustrated sound and rubbed a paw down his face.

"Look," he said, plopping himself down on the table and seizing a slice of pastrami off Agatha's plate, "I've thought about it, and I've decided your dimwit consorts actually had a good point."

"Oh." Agatha put down her toast, and brushed her fingers off on a napkin.

There has been something of an awkward incident the other day, as Gil and Tarvek were debating feline lifespan, and the fact that, for a cat, Krosp was getting on in years. The subject had been something of an intellectual exercise at most; Doctor Vapnoople very well might have modified Krosp enough that he might far exceed the average cat lifespan. But without some very intrusive testing, there was no way to know for sure.

Agatha was quite sure neither had intended for Krosp to overhear that conversation, and she'd hoped Krosp wasn't going to dwell on it. It appeared, however, that he was dwelling. And now he'd made it into her problem as well.

"Look, don't mind Gil and Tarvek," Agatha said. "I'm sure they didn't mean--"

"I don't care what they think!" Krosp dismissed them with an imperious gesture. "But they made me realize that I should be thinking of the future. So, for that reason, I am giving you the task of creating my heir."

Agatha blinked.

"...your what?"

* * *

"Kittens!" Agatha exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "Kittens, Tarvek! He wants me to make him an heir!"

Tarvek, who'd been casually leafing through some notes, lifted his gaze just long enough to give Agatha an innocent look over his glasses.

"Well, royalty does need to think about that sort of thing," Tarvek said, "and he is the emperor of all ca--"

"It was you!" Agatha gasped, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You planned this, didn't you? He didn't just walk in on you discussing this with Gil on accident!"

"Agatha, he has a bear army," Tarvek pointed out. "What's going to happen after he's dead?"

"I'm sure they'd manage," Agatha said. Perhaps they wouldn't all end up as train conductors, but then, they were smart enough to make do. Strictly speaking, she'd been assuming Krosp would bequeath them to the Empire, given that they were already integrated into the Empire's forces.

But then again, they worked for the Empire under Krosp's command.

Once Krosp was gone... well, it was a good question. The bears were smart enough to manage, but what they would manage, precisely, was up in the air.

"So this is about the bears having a king after Krosp is gone?" Agatha asked.

"It's better to prepare these things in advance," Tarvek nodded. "Succession can be tricky even under the best circumstances. And you don't get a new kitten right after the old cat has died."

Agatha made an exasperated sound.

"Besides, I'm sure Krosp is going to enjoy fatherhood," Tarvek continued.

"Tomcats don't really do fatherhood, I don't think," Agatha corrected, already taking out a stack of fresh paper so she could start taking notes.

"No? I haven't looked into how cat familial relationships work," Tarvek shrugged, returning his attention to his notes.

"From what Krosp tells me, they work like yours," Agatha said.

* * *

Agatha found herself having to make a study of many things after Krosp's request. First, she had to engage in a great deal of speculation regarding Doctor Vapnoople's methods. She wished she had notes to start off of, and then, in a bolt of inspiration, realized that the Wulfenbach Empire archives likely had what she sought, and so she sent in a request for everything Vapnoople had written on the subject of animal constructs.

Gil was the one to come with the notes personally, bemused by the request and curious about what Agatha planned to do with them.

"This is highly classified material," he said, even as he passed a bloated journal to Agatha, the leather covers barely containing its stack of paper by being tied with rough twine. "You wouldn't believe the vault Father had these notes locked in."

"Well, it's a start," Agatha said, and kissed Gil's cheek distractedly as she took the notes and wandered off to rifle through them.

"I heard on the way here that Krosp's given you an assignment," Gil said, barely containing a grin. He propped himself against the table as he watched Agatha go through the notes.

"Biology isn't my strong point, but I'm certain I could improve on Vapnoople's work," Agatha said, taking out a pencil and scribbling down something on the margins.

"Not... too much, though?" Gil said. "You don't want Krosp to feel upstaged."

"Oh, you think he would?" Agatha blinked, her fugue stuttering to a halt as she considered the notion.

Gil gave a one-shouldered shrug.

"I don't know. Do cats get territorial?" he asked.

"That is an excellent question," Agatha said. "We should study cats more closely before we start working on this."

Gil's lips crooked into a lopsided grin. 

"Oh, before 'we' start working on it?" he said.

"Hush, and go get some fish from the kitchen. I think I know where we can find some alley cats."

* * *

The truth was, Mechanicsburg was lousy with cats, just like any good-sized town. Feral ones existed, certainly, but contrary to the trends in most towns, the majority of Mechanicsburg's cats were pets or communitary animals cared for by local families or businesses. There was simply no good niche for cats to occupy otherwise. Vermin were kept in check by the myriad monsters that skulked Mechanicsburg's underground, and the town took care of its own, even if its own were furry and four-legged.

Agatha and Gil began their study of the social lives of domestic felines by staking out the alley behind a local butcher shop, where the butcher's apprentice would feed offal to some of the local cats.

In retrospect, Agatha wasn't certain if Mechanicsburg's cats were typical for the common domestic feline archetype. For one, they seemed about as enamored of a Heterodyne's attention as any common townie, and while they treated Gil with indifference, they kept coming up to Agatha and rubbing up against her legs.

"We're going to need help," Agatha said, and left the alley as a half dozen cats followed her and meowed insistently.

Luckily, all she had to do was turn a corner before she managed to find minions ready to be assigned tasks. If the tasks ranged from scouring Castle Heterodyne's library for research material to following around and recording the lives of cats, no minion questioned any of it.

In fact, Agatha was still in this preparatory stage when Krosp dropped in to check on her progress, and was none too pleased to find her in the middle of some light welding work, instead of working on the project he'd provided her with.

"I assume there is a reason you haven't been making progress on my request?" Krosp sniffed as he looked around the lab, more put out than disappointed, like when Agatha would stop him from pushing something off a table.

"For one," Agatha replied, pushing up her welding guard, "it's taking us some time figuring out how much we'd like to improve on Doctor Vapnoople's work."

"Ah," Krosp nodded, "Papa's work can indeed hardly be improved."

"...Uh-huh. Also, the question of how similar to yourself you'd like your heir to be," Agatha continued, and walked up to a workbench, removing a stack of papers from a drawer. Some were Vapnoople's notes, others were Agatha's own plans.

"Well, ideally quite similar, but I also find tabby patterns acceptable, and would approve of calico," Krosp replied.

"I meant--"

"I know what you meant," Krosp said. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "But I can't say. Similar enough in competence, I would request. Certainly not less able a military commander than I am. But I don't think most people can lodge in requests for how their children are to turn out, and if I'm doing this, I might as well accept that no successor of mine is going to be precisely like me."

Agatha was giving him a strange smile now, and he huffed.

"What?" he said, adjusting his coat self-consciously. Over the years, he'd traded in his red one for a few new models, and his current one was black, trimmed with gold.

"Nothing," Agatha shrugged. "I got what you're going for. I might create an even more brilliant military mind than yours by the end of this."

"Well, let's not exaggerate," Krosp said, a bit alarmed. 

"Nope, I've got you," Agatha grinned.

* * *

The next time Krosp made his way to Mechanicsburg in order to upbraid Agatha over the ongoing lack of progress, he strode into her lab only to be met with the sound of small, squeaky mews coming from a basket next to her workbench.

"Oh, good, you're here," Agatha greeted him with a grin, and gestured for Krosp to approach.

Krosp, despite his insistence on haste, dry-swallowed as he realized he hadn't been expecting this and hadn't had time to prepare himself for it.

Nonetheless, he stepped forward, not one to be cowed by kittens, of all things. He approached the basket to be met with the yellow-eyed glower of the kittens' mother, a scraggly old tabby who seemed perfectly ready to bite his head off at the slightest sign of danger to her kittens.

"We ended up with three kittens," Agatha explained, deftly ignoring the momma cat's aura of low-key hostility, and picking up the three fuzzy lumps cuddled up next to her.

They were gray-ish in color, a couple having stripes, but not yet grown into their coloration. To Krosp's surprise, the kittens opened their eyes, three identical blue pairs staring at him as they were cradled in Agatha's arms.

"We'll be monitoring their development as they grow," Agatha was explaining, "since we have some general benchmarks but we don't really know how they're going to turn out. We've created an educational program that should suit them whether or not they turn out to be heir material. Ideally, we'd also have a control group, but I think it's best to provide them all with an education, considering."

The kittens were mewing as they turned their attention to climbing Agatha. One had reached her shoulder, and another had scaled the mighty height of her head--Agatha winced at tiny claws pulling at her scalp and hair, but allowed it--while the third kitten decided it had a good thing going down in Agatha's arms, and snuggled against her chest, trying to climb inside her shirt.

Then Agatha said something truly frightening.

"Would you like to hold them?"

Krosp, who had been staring intensely at the kittens while something akin to a wave of panic rose inside him, looked up at her, startled.

"Oh, I don't think I should--" he began saying, raising his paws defensively.

"Nonsense, you'll have to get used to them if you're going to raise them," Agatha dismissed, and scooped up the kitten trying to worm its way into her cleavage, dropping it in Krosp's arms instead.

Krosp stiffened, trying to hold the squirming kitten, even as it sunk its claws in his coat. The tiny claws couldn't really pierce the material, but they did get tangled in some of the finer embroidery, and the kitten squeaked in distress. He carefully untangled its claws, sighing.

"Hands to yourself," he said, harrumphing. "You're not getting your own coat until you earn it."

To his surprise, the kitten looked to his face as he spoke, its infant-blue eyes alert and eerily filled with awareness, as if it understood his words. Krosp paused as he looked at the kitten, something warm and soft knotting in his chest, where before there had been only panic.

He could admit they were cute at least.

"Hello," he said softly to the kitten.

It stared at him, tilting its head--and then it sneezed, and returned to squirming, finally worming its way out of Krosp's arms, and dropping on the floor to nose at his feet.

"They don't seem any more intelligent than regular kittens," Krosp remarked dryly.

"Neither do human infants at first," Agatha replied, removing the two kittens climbing her and placing them back in the basket next to their mother. "They're barely a week old, give them time."

Krosp, conversely, picked up the kitten at his own feet to drop it back into the basket.

"Well," he said, straightening his coat, "I suppose this is acceptable. At least one of them will prove an adequate heir, I'm sure."

"Uh-huh. Would you like some supper? I was going to get something to eat."

"You go ahead," Krosp gestured airily.

Agatha's eyebrows rose at the mere notion that Krosp would pass on offers of food, but as he was inching his way close to the basket and looking down to the kittens inside, she didn't press the issue.

* * *

The bear army, who were perhaps the ones Krosp's policy on succession was going to affect the most, took the entire thing in stride.

Agatha discovered this because she walked into the playroom one day and came face to face with a bear with a kitten on its snout.

"Mrh," the bear greeted, careful not to jostle the kitten as it held tightly onto the bear's nose. 

Agatha had to press a fist against her mouth to stop from laughing, but she managed to rally heroically, and her voice was perfectly neutral and somber as she offered to take the kitten.

"Little prince has strong paws for so small a size," the bear said, leaning down towards Agatha and standing still as she picked up the kitten. He tried to dig his claws in, but they weren't very useful at his age. "Good climber," the bear added, amused.

"Up!" the kitten squeaked. "Up up up!" He tried struggling out of Agatha's hands to climb back up.

In uneven fits, all three kittens had started talking. This one, whom they had named Alexander, had developed his vocabulary along the lines of imperious demands for milk, play or cuddles. If he was not commanding people to pick him up, he was commanding them to give him things, and while momentarily it was endearing to have a little kitten shout squeaky orders at people, Agatha hoped he wouldn't grow up spoiled.

Alexander's sisters, Artemisia and Joan, were also in the playroom. Joan was curled up and asleep on top of one bear's belly as he sat on the floor, apparently pinned in place by his unwillingness to disturb the sleeping kitten, while another bear was playing with Artemisia, using a bit of string.

There was something unexpectedly homey about the entire tableau, for all that bears were not usually animals one kept in the home. But Agatha was touched by the gentleness and care the bears displayed towards the kittens.

Artemisia came trotting up to Agatha, a length of red string in her mouth.

"Agatha, look! I hunted!" she declared, and put the string down at Agatha's feet. "You do it now! Make the string go!"

Agatha chuckled, and leaned down to pick up the string and drag it across the ground. Artemisia, delighted at her demands being met, crouched down as her pupils dilated with interest.  She swiped at it a few times, never quite quick enough to catch it, and she seemed to grow frustrated very quickly at this.

Agatha was just about to let Artemisia have the string, when the kitten huffed and turned around.

"I don't want it!" Artemisia declared dramatically.

"...Okay," Agatha said, feeling a bit sorry for not letting Artemisia have the string sooner, but then at that exact moment, Artemisia turned around with surprising speed, and grabbed onto the string with both claws.

"Hah!" Artemisia declared victoriously, rolling onto her back to tug the string completely free of Agatha's hands, and getting her claws tangled in it.

"Oh no," Agatha burst into laughter at the antics, and at Artemisia's rather good feint.

Agatha was not done laughing when Krosp came into the room, brandishing a book.

"I found something in the library!" he said, and then stopped in his tracks as he noticed Agatha. "Oh, you're here," he remarked, apparently surprised by this.

"Yes, I live here," Agatha replied. "What did you find in the library?"

Krosp coughed awkwardly, tilting the book so it was half hidden by his body. But by the shape, Agatha was certain it had to be a children's book.

"Just some reading material. For the children," Krosp replied.

Upon hearing this, or perhaps simply because they noticed Krosp, all three kittens converged on him, running as fact as their stubby little legs could carry them.

"I helped pick it out," Castle Heterodyne's voice grinded out from the walls, with a pinch of smugness.

As Krosp was getting swarmed by his erstwhile heirs, Agatha leaned over and plucked the book from his grasp, turning it over to look at the title.

'Randhurst's First Raid', declared the title, and the illustration showed a gap-toothed little boy holding a death ray and a trilobite banner. The background, unless Agatha missed her guess, featured the silhouettes of an entire Jäger army, getting ready to follow little Randhurst into battle. The book was old and dusty, and by the worn spine and the jam fingerprints along the edges of the pages, Agatha guessed it must have passed through the hands of many a Heterodyne heir before that tradition stopped abruptly with her father and uncle.

"I don't know if this is really appropriate for--" Agatha looked up to see Artemisia presenting Krosp with her piece of string like it was something she'd killed in battle, and Agatha found herself smiling.

She handed the book back to Krosp with only a little chuckle at his overwhelmed expression as all three of his kittens began talking to him at once, and, after nodding her goodbye to the present bears, she slipped out of the door of the playroom.

"This is too cute," Agatha muttered to herself in the hallway.

"It is, isn't it?" Castle Heterodyne said wistfully. "Almost makes you want a few of your own, hm?"

Agatha nearly rolled her eyes at the Castle's hints, as she did every time it badgered her about heirs, but in all honestly, she couldn't say she hadn't been thinking about children more and more lately.

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah, just about."


End file.
